"Fiat money is backed by men with guns; Bitcoin is not. So why should this thing have any value?"--Uber statist economist Paul Krugman.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Glenn Greenwald nails the hypocrisy of Barack Obama and the disgusting politics of Diane Feinstein ...

... but does anybody really care?

Greenwald points out that President Obama has (a) repeatedly violated his own promises with respect to warrantless wiretapping, and (b) depends for its renewal on the very hardline conservative GOP politicians he routinely attacks, while ...

Feinstein is channeling her inner Dick Cheney by accusing anybody who wants to even debate transparency of furthering the ends of terrorism (and, yes, kavips, I DO think she wants to run for President in 2016).

If Americans actually understood that part of what the administration demanded in the power to keep even court rulings and specific laws secret, then Democrats would be thinking about drafting Senator Ron Wyden for the nomination. Senator Wyden had the best quote of the day:

"secret law is inconsistent with democratic governance"

But the reality is that most Americans have become so numbed to the loss of civil liberties and constitutional guarantees that it doesn't really matter any more.

2 comments:

delacrat
said...

"... but does anybody really care?"

Steve,

Last year, the NDAA went down around this time. The speculation was the ruling castes thought it best to slip it in while the "citizens" were preoccupied with Xmas spending, traveling and such. So maybe our rulers believe we care.

I concur. You don't sneak things through when you think no one cares. You sneak things through to be sneaky...

Oops... too late... got to wait 5 years now.

The main press dropped this big time. People want their internet to be free. CISPA and ACTA both were sneaked through, but got caught, and those pushing it got hung out to dry.... Remember every time you clicked onto Google it had your congressman's phone number and you were told to call him...

In 2007 it was acknowledged in court that the US was recording every transaction and every phone call made in the US. That is a lot of info and the enormous size alone protects our privacy. The idea was that once someone popped up as a potential suspect, one could go back probably to 2005 and sift through everything they've done. Had an affair? They'd use the threat of exposing it to solicit untrue information.... and have you incriminate another...

Hopefully none here on this blog has anything they need to keep secret.. because if anyone looks, it is there...

So, yes. People care... I was disheartened that the Saturday papers all slanted it as listening to foreign calls on foreign soils... That is not the turth of this bill at all. In fact the amendment to disclose how many Americans were caught up in this, came close, but was defeated....

The problem is most Americans (look at the outrage when Facebook loosens their privacy settings) don't even know it is happening .. I wouldn't if I hadn't been looking into it during the last passage of it in 2008... I'm so mad at myself. I wish I had remembered that is was supposed to expire.....

I don't have access to the links right now, but it would be wise to remember the case just this year, where an ex marine was arrested, (he thought it was a tv stunt at first) held without access to an attorney three states away in a military brig, for.... what turned out, was the lines of a rap song he'd been trying to sing in person, but had forgotten, and so, he typed them on facebook and sent them over.... In that exchange, AP got information and published that over 10,000 were being incarcerated without trial..

So. the answer is yes, I think every one cares... it is just that they know nothing about it... Our world is simply too big right now...